EP 404- IM Kostya Kavutskiy- A renewed Quest for the GM Title, An Olympiad Trip Report, plus Chess Improvement Questions Answered

This week’s returning guest is ChessDojo co-founder, IM Kostya Kavutskiy. Kostya joined me after returning from a busy summer of chess travel in Europe. Kostya has recently redoubled his efforts to earn the Grandmaster title, and has been competing OTB frequently. He also attended the Olympiad and gave a fascinating first-hand perspective of what it was like to be in Budapest. Kostya has been writing about both his GM quest and the Olympiad on his recently launched blog, Kostya goes for GM. As an experienced trainer, and Chessable Author, Kostya is always insightful on the challenges of chess improvement, both his own, and that of the Chess Dojo members across the rating spectrum. With that in mind, we began the conversation by discussing the challenges Kostya is facing, as well as those from some podcast listeners. 

After 30+ minutes of chess improvement talk we discussed the Olympiad, what is new with the ChessDojo, and even a forthcoming book. As always, timestamps of topics discussed are below. 

0:00-  Thanks to our sponsors, Chessable.com. 

Check out their new offerings including GM Garry Kasparov’s much anticipated Chessable debut! If you sign up for Chessable Pro, please use the following link to help support Perpetual Chess:

https://www.chessable.com/pro/?utm_source=affiliate&utm_medium=benjohnson&utm_campaign=pro

02:00- Why did Kostya decide to redouble his efforts to earn the GM title and start a blog about it?

Mentioned:

Kostya goes for GM

Kostya’s interview with Chessbase India:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihXw3q8UMdM

06:00- Are the changes in the FIDE rating system noticeable yet? 

11:00- Kostya recently played a few tournaments in Europe. What did he learn from them?

18:00- Patreon mailbag question: Is there a correlation between solving easy puzzles quickly and solving more challenging ones? 

21:00- What is new with the Chessdojo? 

26:00- Patreon mailbag question:  Is there still room for classic chess books like The Art of Attack in Chess. 

Chessable- 

https://www.chessable.com/the-art-of-attack-in-chess/course/24575/

Amazon-

https://www.amazon.com/Art-Attack-Chess-Ladimir-Vukovic/dp/1857444000

29:00- Is Kostya taking inspiration from Levy’s GM quest? 

36:00- Kostya shares some reflections from visiting the Olympiad. 

Mentioned: 

Kostya’s blog post about the Olympiad:

https://hellokostya.substack.com/p/12-things-i-learned-from-the-budapest

52:00- Kostya discusses a forthcoming Chess Dojo book. 

54:00- Thanks as always to Kostya for joining, you can find him via Chessdojo as well as his own social media accounts. 

https://www.chessdojo.club/

Twitter/X- 

https://x.com/hellokostya?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

Instagram-

https://www.instagram.com/hellokostya/

ChessDojo YouTube-